polar stars, even
as plants follow the sun, as Heliotrope does: Or that there is a
magnet-stone situated under the tail of the Greater Bear, as Lucas Gauricus
the Astrologer stated: He would even assign the loadstone, like the
Sardonyx and onyx, to the planet Saturn, yet at the same time he assigns it
with the adamant, Jasper, and Ruby, to Mars; so that it is ruled by two
planets. The loadstone moreover is said by him to pertain to the sign
Virgo; and he covers many such shameful pieces of folly with a veil of
mathematical erudition. Such as that an image of a bear is engraved on a
loadstone when the Moon faces towards the north, so that when hung by an
iron wire it may conciliate the influence of the celestial Bear, as
Gaudentius Merula[40] relates: Or that the loadstone drew iron and directed
it to the north, because it is superior in rank to iron, at the Bear, as
Ficinus writes, and Merula repeats: Or that by day it has a certain power
of attracting iron, but by night the power is feeble, or rather null: Or
that when weak and dulled the virtue is renewed by goats' blood, as
Ruellius[41] writes: Or that Goats' blood sets a loadstone free from the
venom of a diamond, so that the lost power is revived when bathed in goats'
blood by reason of the discord between that blood and the diamond: Or that
it removed sorcery from women, and put to flight demons, as Arnaldus de
Villanova dreams: Or that it has the power to reconcile husbands to their
wives, or to recall brides to their husbands, as Marbodeus Gallus[42],
chorus-leader of vanities, teaches: Or that in a loadstone pickled in the
salt of a sucking fish[43] there is power to pick up gold which has fallen
into the deepest wells, according to the narratives of Caelius Calcagninus.
With such idle tales and trumpery do plebeian philosophers delight
themselves and satiate readers greedy for hidden things, and unlearned
devourers of absurdities: But after the magnetick nature shall have been
disclosed by the discourse that is to follow, and perfected by our labours
and experiments, then will the hidden and abstruse causes of so great an
effect stand out, sure, proven, displayed and demonstrated; and at the same
time all darkness will disappear, and all error will be torn up by the
roots and will lie unheeded; and the foundations of a grand magnetick
philosophy which have been laid will appear anew, so that high intellects
may be no further mocked by idle opinions. Some learned